Secret tribunals, abuses of power, and torture were all facts of life in the Languedoc province at the turn of the 14th century, where the Inquisition intended to root out any vestiges of Cathar heresy, real or imagined. Their dungeons housed hundreds of despairing innocents, imprisoned on trumped-up charges. But repression bred resentment, and it was in the fortified town of Carcassonne that resistance began to stir, fomented by a remarkable orator: a Franciscan friar named Bernard Délicieux. In this follow-up to The Perfect Heresy, Stephen O'Shea gives us Délicieux's inspiring and tragic story, as he pitted his faith against the ruthless Pope Boniface VII, the Machiavellian King Philip IV, and the grand inquisitor of Toulouse, Bernard Gui—the villain of Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose.

"Vividly describing this wonderfully sleazy and corrupt world ... this is a great story, full of fascinating characters."—BBC History

"O'Shea's vivid and evocative story of the extraordinary and moving career of Bernard Délicieux rests on thorough and wide-ranging knowledge and shrewd historical judgment."—R.I. Moore